Keeping a Normanton garden looking good all year
A one-off tidy feels great for a few weeks, then the grass, hedges and weeds start creeping back. Regular garden maintenance is for anyone in Normanton who would rather the garden stayed in shape without giving up their weekends to it. Affordable Gardens & Landscapes, a family run and fully insured business based in Knottingley, works across Normanton for homeowners, landlords and commercial customers, calling at an interval that suits each garden: grass cut, edges trimmed, hedges and shrubs kept in shape, beds weeded and everything left tidy before we go.
Who regular visits suit
Normanton sits just off junction 31 of the M62 and has grown into a commuter town for the Leeds City Region, so plenty of people leave early, get home late and spend the light evenings on the road rather than in the garden. A regular visit takes that job off the list. It suits people looking after a parent's garden too. Rosie Smith's review said simply "highly recommended did a brilliant job of my mums garden", and keeping an older relative's garden in order, so they can still sit out and enjoy it, is one of the most useful things regular maintenance does. Landlords between tenants, and businesses with borders or grass at the front, use it for the same reason: the outside looks cared for without anyone having to remember.
What a visit covers
Every garden is different, but the core is the same. The lawn is mown and the edges cut so grass does not creep into beds and paths. Hedges are trimmed, shrubs are shaped, and beds and borders are weeded before the weeds get a chance to seed. Paths, patios and gravel are kept clear of weeds, leaves come up in autumn, and cuttings are cleared away at the end of each visit. For commercial grounds, that might mean grass verges, a hedge along the car park and the planting by the entrance. If you like something done a particular way, a hedge kept at a certain height or a border left a little wild for the bees, tell us and it becomes part of the routine.
Through the year
Grass grows fastest from spring into early summer, so mowing is most frequent then and eases off as growth slows. In dry spells, leaving the grass slightly longer helps a lawn cope with the heat. Hedge cutting fits around the bird nesting season: the RSPB's advice is to trim hedges between 1 September and 28 February, March to September is the main nesting period, and it is illegal to damage a nest that is in use. Through spring and summer, hedges get a careful look before any trim. Autumn brings leaf clearing and the last cuts of the year, and winter is the time for heavier shrub pruning and a tidy round the edges. If you want the garden at its best for a particular weekend, say a family visit around Party @ Haw Hill Park in July or the Normanton Gala Weekend in September, tell us and the visits can be timed around it.
Old walls, mature trees and newer plots
Gardens inside the conservation area that Wakefield Council drew around All Saints Church and the lower High Street in 1975 can come with established hedges, old stone and mature trees, and routine care there means working steadily around them rather than cutting hard. The designation brought controls on felling and lopping trees, so tree work is never part of a maintenance visit. Newer gardens, like the rear gardens of the homes on Railway Terrace by the station, can be simpler: a lawn, a fence line and a border, where regular mowing and sharp edges do most of the work.
Easy to arrange
You do not need to be home when we call, as long as the garden can be reached through a side gate or back lane. Let us know about anything to watch for: a dog that needs keeping in, a pond, a patch of lawn that stays wet after rain, a plant you want left alone. A garden that gets attention at regular intervals gets easier to look after over time, because weeds never get the chance to seed and hedges never grow so far that they need cutting back hard.
Starting regular maintenance
If the garden is already badly overgrown, start with a one-off garden clearance in Normanton and move on to regular visits once it is back under control. Otherwise, call 07347 572509, Monday to Friday between 9am and 6pm, tell us what the garden has in it and how often you think it needs attention, and ask for a quote. Our regular garden maintenance page explains how the service works, and the Normanton page lists everything else we do in the town.
